Remainder of original article. Thanks for continuing!
I digress though. What I wanted to make my point about now is the local sports talk station, which happens to be owned by one Daniel Snyder, he who owns the Washington Redskins National Football League team. That Daniel Snyder. The same one that also recently purchased controlling interest in Six Flags amusement parks. The same one that owns a big stake in Johnny Rocket's burger establishments. The same one that has spent a ton of money on an underperforming and highly over-paid Washington Redskins NFL team.
Snyder bought a triad of radio stations in the D.C. area to create his Triple X ESPN cluster of stations, all simulcasting the same programming. In the 4pm - 7pm time frame he airs programming featuring the legendary John Riggins. Riggins is the hall of fame running back that helped the Redskins win a Superbowl over the Miami Dolphins back in the early 80's. He's a revered figure in the D.C. area and now that he's on sports talk radio on a regular basis, some people catch his show when they have time.
As it turns out, I happened to flip on Riggins' show while riding home from the game today. A disappointing game because the home team was handily defeated. But an enjoyable game because it was a beautiful day for a ball game (game time temp was around 75F) and because there was a great crowd at the stadium, almost all cheering for the home team.
You see, as noted in blog entries last year, and the year before, I remember years of not having baseball in D.C. Years of having to go to Baltimore to see the Orioles on their opening day. Supporting a team that I cheered for as a child, but which didn't seem to be my "home team" because I've never considered Baltimore to be the city I live by. Baltimore is a city that is in my area, but it's not my "home town" city.
I've lived much closer to D.C. for years, worked in D.C. for a while, and work in the D.C. suburbs even now. D.C. is my "home city" even though I don't live directly there. It just feels to me like the city I'm closest to.
Anyway, as someone that was out supporting the home team, and sitting in the stadium with 40,300+ I was quite pleased with the crowd. It wasn't a complete sellout, but in a aged and fairly non-fan-friendly stadium, on a workday, I was quite happy with the attendance and the crowd.
Not so the clowns on the sports talk station. Those pooh-poohers and nay-sayers were of course going on and on about how disappointing it should be that the stadium wasn't sold out. Especially since it's the final year in that stadium, etc.
Apparently no one sent them the memo that 40,300+ is a good sized crowd. No one told them that there were days not so long ago that getting 40,300+ out to see the Washington Redskins would have been a great day. (Yes, those days were back in the 60's and 70's, but it isn't that long ago). No one told them that in most cities where Major League Baseball is played the home teams would about die for 40,300+ in attendance for any of their games, not just for opening day. (The Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins and a host of other teams would love to see such attendance numbers)
You gotta love the talking heads on Sports Talk radio. Always have to get themselves embroiled in some sort of controversy to get people riled up to call in and tell them what idiots they are.
